Last week, indie publisher Turtleduck Press launched a new fantasy anthology that sounds like a LOT of fun — especially if you’re someone who’s after more stories in which women seize control of their destinies.

Under Her Protection: Stories of Women to the Rescue is edited by Toronto-based author and keen fellow traveller, Siri Paulson. To celebrate the launch of the anthology (in which she also has a story), I’m most happy to have Siri here today answering a few questions.

But first, the official book blurb…

Under Her Protection: Stories of Women to the Rescue

Sometimes men are the ones trapped in a tower, or bound by a curse, or doomed to stay in the underworld. Damsels or not, they need rescuing too. And these are just the women to do it…

A swordswoman and a scholar.
A grim reaper and a dead man.
A maidservant and an inventor.
A new university grad and a prince.

Fantasy romance stories from four indie writers about strong women… and men who need their help.

1. Can you tell us a little of the inspiration for your story (the one about the maidservant and the inventor)?

Last year I visited India for the first time, fell in love with it, and decided there was an unforgivable lack of fantasy and science fiction stories set in this vivid, contradictory, culturally rich nation. My inventor, Bijai, is based on an eighteenth-century Indian ruler, Jai Singh II, who really was fascinated by science. He is known for building enormous structures for doing astronomical calculations, just as Bijai does in the story. Beyond that, the palace and the tower are based on real places in Rajasthan, India.

2. What do you love most about the complete anthology?

The fact that it presents four completely different strong women, each saving the day and falling in love on her own terms. I’m always arguing that the term “strong woman” has many meanings — including but not limited to those who are good at physical fighting — and I’m proud of the way we’ve explored the term.

3. What is it about fantasy (spec fic) as a genre that inspires you — as a reader, as a writer?

The “sense of wonder”. Fantasy is all about showcasing wonder. That’s what drew me to it in the first place, and what keeps me coming back as a reader and a writer over and over again. In search of different ways to evoke the sense of wonder, the genre explores worlds and ideas of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations”, as the Vulcans say. There are just no limits, and that’s fabulous.

Siri is an expatriate from Alberta, Canada, who now makes her home in Toronto with her significant other. In her non-writing life, she is an editor of non-fiction. Her other current passion is contra dance, a type of folk dance done to live Celtic and roots music. Her favourite places in the world are the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a little valley at the end of a fjord in Norway.

Siri is the acquisitions editor and copy editor at Turtleduck Press.

My thanks to Siri for stopping by. As I said, the anthology sounds like a lot of fun and I’ve just downloaded onto my kindle. (Go on! You know you want to!)